- Ticket information
-
Repertoire
- Bittersweet
- Dream Time
- Hungarian Rhapsody
- Labyrinth
- Dancing Hungarians
- Verbunk - The birth of a national dance
- From Father to Son
- Eternal Kalotaszeg
- Highland Treasures
- Hungarian Concerto
- Sunlegend
- Pannonian Fresco
- I dance it my way
- From Pista Dankó to Kusturica
- Bonchida-Bécs-Budapest
- I left my sweet Homeland
- History
- Choreographers and Composers
- The HSFE in the World – Tours
DREAM TIME
Music: Nikola Parov
Choreographers: Orza Calin, Anita Gera, Zsolt Juhász, Gábor Katona, Richárd Kökény, Gábor Mihályi
Director / Choreographer: Gábor Mihályi
Performed by the Dance Group of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble
Solo singer: Ágnes Herczku

The symbolic meaning of dream has been known since the dawn of history. In the archaic mythologies of natural peoples, dream is reality, sometimes accorded a higher order than consciousness. However, the “hidden small doors” of dreams in Dream Time do not open onto the “cosmic primordial night” (Jung). The “dream god” of Dream Time is not Hypnos of Greek mythology, nor is the performance a Freudian analysis…
Dream Time is a paean of praise to human dancing. The dreams of its creators – or their inferred memories – come to life from a world experienced, or believe to have been experienced, demonstrating their relationship to traditions, the secrets of the past, to the diversity of the present.
In dream, everything can happen. Dream is magic, it opens a door between life and death, between reality and fiction. Dream is the mirror of our repressed desires. Dream is travel.
For the performance, Nikola Parov has composed a new work, drawing inspiration on Hungarian and in the wider sense, Carpathian Basin and Balkan folk music, as well as putting special emphasis on the musical cultures of Eastern peoples related to the Hungarians (Hanti, Mansi etc.). The music of Dream Time is purposefully eclectic, and besides tradition incorporates the characteristics of jazz, as well as the post modernity of today’s world music.
The scenes of the choreographers led by Gábor Mihály follow the best examples of contemporary folk dance arrangements, displaying great changes of mood before us. The material of the dance themes derive from Carpathian Basin folklore, which the creators have chosen, condensed and stylized according to the merciless rules of theatre. Individual associations and additional thought and emotional content are arranged to individual dances, so that this way they can become the expressive device of the feelings of modern man, his thoughts, and his individual or communal identity.
First performance: 6 October 2010, 7 pm, Festival Theatre
Costume Designer: Edit Szűcs
Spectacle: Gerzson Péter Kovács
Animation: Attila Karácsonyi
Dance Director: Richárd Kökény
Choreographer's Assistants: Beatrix Borbély, Katalin Jávor, Péter Varga
Artistic Director: Gábor Mihályi
Gábor Dusa's photos of a summer and autumn rehearcal
The performance is a
co-production of the Hungarian Heritage House and the
Sponsored by The National
Cultural Fund of
- About the Hungarian Heritage House
- Hungarian State Folk Ensemble
- Applied Folk Arts Departement
- Folklore Documentation Center (Archives)